Highbury and Drayton Park
Post to the north Finsbury Park
Post to the West Holloway Road
Albany Place
This was latterly used as an entrance to the council depot
Mission Hall. The Albany Mission was formerly a day school dating from 1840. It was then a branch mission and Sunday School of the Holloway Chapel. In 1961 it closed and the site was acquired by the Council to extend their Cleansing Depot
Methodist Chapel. The work of the Central Mission was transferred here in 1953 but this building was compulsorily purchased for slum clearance.
Arvon Road
Herb Garden. In 1985 residents of Arvon Road opened a herb
garden planted with English herbs and other plants.
Ashburton Grove
The road has now disappeared under the Emirates Stadium. Before the Second World War it appears to have been lined with housing and to have led to various railway goods and coal depots. It was later enveloped by the Islington Council depot.
Ashburton Grove goods station. Opened in 1876 and closed 1960.
London North East Railway, coal depot
Council Depot. This was rebuilt in 1937. It included a refuse destructor installed in the early 1890s.
Ashburton Triangle. This is the tip of the triangle now taken up by the Emirates Stadium. This tip was set aside for a residential development built by Robert MacAlpine. There is also an enclosed landscaped communal garden and the Arsenal Museum.
Aubert Park
Named after Alexander Aubert a Swiss insurance broker and amateur astrologer who had an observatory at Deptford and commissioned another at Highbury House
Aubert Court Garden. This garden area surrounding Aubert Court is part of an Islington council estate built 1946-53 by E. C. P. Monson. The garden was the site of the Highbury College for Dissenters which stood here.
Highbury College of Dissenters. This moved here from Mile End. The buildings were on the grassed area on the north side of the road opposite Leigh Road. A cobbled carriage entrance crossed the pavement. It was designed by John Davies, surveyor for Tower Hamlets 1839-1865 and was built around three sides of a square with an imposing portico. It was sold to the Church of England in 1849 that added more buildings in the 1860s and was known as St.John’s Hall. It was eventually burnt down in the 1940s. Two anti-aircraft guns were sited here in the Second World War
17 Hartfield. Plaque to physiologist, surgeon and anthropologist.
Battledean Road
4 Plaque by Islington Council to Charles Bowerman. Early 20th activist in the printing trade unions
Benwell Road
Part of an old route north continuing Hornsey Road, called Devil's Lane
11-13 Benwell Studios. Office block
15-21 Benwell House. Jamie Oliver corporate headquarters. Restaurant Group
National College of Rubber Technology. Courses in rubber technology started at the Northern Polytechnic in 1924. In 1945 a National College of Rubber Technology was founded here. A new building was constructed in Benwell Road designed to provide and in 1953 the college transferred there. Now the Metropolitan University it has become the London Metropolitan Polymer Centre
40 Montague Arms. There by 1874 this pub is now converted to housing.
55 Arsenal Hub. Base for ‘Arsenal in the Community’ providing sport and education sessions to local people. It has an astroturf pitch, and also classrooms, meeting space and the Arsenal Red Zone adult learning centre.
Post Office Sorting office. This is shown on the corner with Hornsey Road before the Second World War.
The Forster Board School was opened in 1889 by the School Board for London on the site of the Holloway Ragged School (which fronted on Hornsey Road). In the 1950s it was re-named William Forster School and then closed in 1961. It was later used by the Shelburne School as an annexe and then as Shelburne Youth Centre. The building is still there but now fronts on to Hornsey Road, while there are buildings in front of the Benwell Road entrance, with the old school entrance gate retained as a feature.
Chillingworth Road
This was once called Victoria Road.
St. Mark’s Studios. This was originally the church of St.James the Apostle built in 1837 by Inwood & Clifton's. The tower was added in 1850. It was altered to become a parish hall after bombing in 1944. This was built inside the old church; the derelict roof remaining. The parish united with Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1954.and it thus became St, Mary Magdalene Community Hall. It was converted in 1980-2 by Pollard Thomas Edwards Associates as flats and studios – as School of Audio Engineering although many organisations are based there.
Ring Cross Primary School. School on site here c1955-c1977
4a Stoddarts. Made toy soldiers, etc. 1920s
Church Path
The path leads from the top of Highbury Place to Christ Church. a footpath prviouslsy ran across the 'Mother Field' from Highbury Corner to the old Manor House site and was a public footpath from the early 19th . It has railings on both sides and is lined with trees.
Corsica Street
A mews area for the posh houses in Highbury Place
Drayton Park `
This was once called Highbury Hill Park,
1 Collis Bird Withey. Bookbinders providing a service for small scale publishing – theses, etc.
2 Mission hall in the 19th and 19th
23 The Old Roman Catholic Church, founded in England in 1908, moved here from Aberdeen Road in in 1974 and opened a chapel here.
Highbury Chapel, Wesleyan Methodist was built in the Gothic style. It became part of the Wesleyan London Central Mission from the 1880s. In 1930 it was closed when the Central Hall was built.
Highbury Wesleyan School for Boys and Girls. In 1864 day schools were added to the Highbury chapel. They were demolished when the central hall was built on their site. On the corner with Horsell Road. The school became Drayton Park
Central Methodist Hall Islington. This was built in 1929 on the site of the Methodist schools to replace two older local Wesleyan Methodist churches. The first minister was Rev Donald Soper who developed the church and organised community facilities. It had a large two-tier auditorium seating 1,300. In 1941 the church united with Archway Central Hall to form the London Mission North Circuit. It closed in 1953 because of maintenance costs and the building was let for industrial use.
30 German Methodist Mission. The Mission, was based here 1929-1971
Western Laundry. This includes a big bock of buildings between the school and an original house at 32. A laundry had existed here, behind the houses, from at least 1900. It was taken over by National Sunlight and then became Cypressa, a Greek food importer. The 1930s building included a chimney at the back north which has since been removed. The building has been divided into office and industrial units since the 1960s and was reported to have been demolished in 2006. A restaurant with the original laundry name is now occupying part of the building.
Drayton Park Primary School. This began in 1860 as the Highbury Wesleyan School at a site on the corner of Horsell Read. A new building was provided in 1866 for boys, girls and infants. It was a voluntary school in 1906 but taken over by the London County Council and renamed Drayton Park Council School by 1908. An extension was added in 1966. A nursery opened 1980 in part of infant accommodation.
Drayton Park Station. This was opened in 1904 and lies between Finsbury Park and Highbury and Islington on the Northern City Line. It was opened by the Great Northern & City Railway to provide a route for their trains to Moorgate which proceeded in a deep tube tunnel constructed to main line dimensions. It was however never fully connected at Finsbury Park. In 1913 the company was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway and in 1933 by the London Passenger Transport Board and became part of the Northern Line... Construction of the Victoria Line meant that the tunnels north of Drayton Park were used for that line and Drayton Park became a terminus for the line from Moorgate. In 1975 the line was transferred to British Rail and ramps built in the 1930s for the Northern Heights plan were used for tracks to connect the line Finsbury Park had main line trains ran on it from 1976 between Finsbury Park and Moorgate.
Railway. The Northern Heights plan was conceived in the 1930s for a railway to Elstree via Highgate. It included providing the unbuilt connection from Drayton Park to Finsbury Park. By 1939 Earthworks for two extra lines to Finsbury Park Station and for new bridges were completed but the Second World War put an end to this and the new line was never completed.
Depot. Remnants of this can be seen to the left of the platform the track having been sold to a heritage railway. It was opened in 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway for electric traction workshops. Closed in 1985. Maps from the later 19th show an ‘electric light works’ and a ’gas works’ on site.
52d Islington Learning Disabilities Partnership. This is in what was built as a Neighbourhood Centre, one of four local centres to house decentralized day-to-day services. Planned in 1982 it was built by Chris Purslow, Borough Architect.
66 Drayton Arms. Old fashioned pub
75 Emirates Stadium. This is built on the site of Islington Borough rubbish disposal depot and is a football ground with a capacity of nearly 60,000.In 1997. Arsenal football club bought the site and work began on the ground in 2004. Emirates sponsored it. The ground is also used for non-football events. It includes a plaque “The Spirit of Highbury", to past football players and eight murals which encircles the stadium and which depicts other players. The scheme also involves numerous commercial and other buildings around the periphery of this large site, running along the edge of what was the railway goods and coal depot
100 -112 Flats in what was the Express Dairy bakery which dated from the late 19th with extensive alterations in 1912 and later.
Fieldway Crescent
Islington Central Library. Built 1905-7 by Henry T. Hare and is a Carnegie endowment. It has a stone front with statues of Spenser and Bacon. The frieze says 'Islington Central Library' with the date '19 AD 06' over the porch and three ladies' heads below the frieze by Schenk. There is a red brick wing behind plus a 1970s addition with a new main entrance. It was the first purpose built open-access library. This is the library which exhibited the books which Joe Orton defaced, and for which he was sent to prison.
George’s Road
2 The first Wesleyan chapel in Lower Holloway was built in the garden here in 1837. In 1857 this closed and leased to the Quakers.
St James Works. Favourite Toys. This was a location for Dr.Who. Now in other use.
Hamilton Park
Hamilton Lane and Royal Mail Sorting Office. This has recently been closed and sold. The sorting office dated from the 1960s but replaced an older building.
Highbury Crescent
This row of large villas formed the boundary of the Fields. It was designed by James Wagstaffe, and opened in 1846. The southern section of the road is in the square to the south.
Highbury Fields
This square covers only the northern half of The Fields. This is now the largest piece of open ground to survive in Islington, a triangular-shaped public park on sloping land. Rustic the fields lay alongside the main road from the North and were thus a regular stopping place for cattle to graze on the way to Smithfield. It was also used by local dairy farmers. In the 19th it was used as allotments. In the 1860s 25 acres of open land were purchased from John Dawes the freeholder by Islington Vestry and opened to the public. It became a public park in 1885 and 1891. In 1885 it was purchased for £60,000, half paid by Islington vestry and the other half by Metropolitan Board of Works. It was subsequently managed by London .County .Council. Two and a half mew acres were acquired in 1891 on the demolition of Highbury Grove mansion.
Canonbury Curve. This railway tunnel runs under the fields, built in 1873 by the Great Northern Railway tunnel but now includes the Victoria Line tunnel. In curve was originally built to connecting the Great Northern Railway suburban system with Broad Street.
Highbury Grove
This is a medieval road to Highbury Manor House.
Highbury Grove School – this is described in the square to the east
Ladbroke House. This block was formerly used by A.C. Cossor Ltd, Here they are said to have made the first cathode ray tubes in 1902 and did work for Marconi. In 1918 they moved to Aberdeen Works (described in the post to the east). It was later occupied by the North London Polytechnic, as the North London Science centre and subsequently London Metropolitan University. It has now been purchased by the government for a film studies based ‘Free’ school.
56a originally a brick garage dating from 1900 with corrugated iron roof this was a purpose built balloon factory - G.G.Spencer and sons, pioneering aeronauts. The works was visited by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Herbert Spencer is said to have made 1250 balloon ascents and 250 parachute descents. He claimed the first parachute descent from a balloon in 1899 and made a drop of 15 000 feet in 1909.
155 Christ Church. Christ Church cost £6000 and was dedicated in 1848. Local landowner Henry Dawes donated the site and the architect was Thomas Allom of Balham. He made the most of his corner island site with an asymmetrically placed spire to give a profile from every viewpoint. It was restored in 1980.
Vicarage. This fronts onto the road at the southeast side of the church. Also in Kentish rag
Highbury Hill
'Dreary neighbourhood’ is a quotation from the 1940s. Many of the sites on the Highbury Hill estate were developed as purpose-built blocks of flats
Clock Tower. This is in cast iron and erected for Queen Victoria's Jubilee Diamond Jubilee. An inscription cast into the door of the plinth says: 'Presented to the Islington Vestry by Alfred Hutchinson in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria 1897
Highbury Fields School. The school is the result of the joining of Highbury Hill High School and Shelburne High School in 1981. Before this it was Highbury Hill High School which was founded in 1844 by the Home and Colonial Society as one of their Model School in the Grays Inn Road. From 1863, it was a girls school and was renamed “The Mayo School” after a founding member, Elizabeth Mayo. In 1894 the School moved from to Highbury Hill House and became Highbury Hill High School for Girls. Management was later handed over to London County Council who built a brand new school here in 1928 in classical brick with a hipped roof. A later extension was by Stirling and Gowan in a brick and glass style of the 1960s. In 1976 it became London’s first ever mini-comprehensive along with local boy’s school, Highbury Grove. There have been further building extensions since
Highbury Hill House. This was built in 1719 by Daniel Asher Alexander for Dr. William Saunders, FRS an expert on lier disease. It wad demolished for the school
Tawney Court. This is the site of Highbury Hill Baptist Church. The church originated in 1862 but was disused by 1866. Another group formed in 1871 and a Chapel was built 1870-1 and registered by Particular Baptists. Vestries and classrooms were added by 1901. It was damaged by 1952 and demolished in 1959.
Highbury Park
This runs between Highbury Grove and Blackstock Road. Some of the area it runs through now seems to be called Highbury Barn. The frontage to Highbury Park, then called Cream Hall Road, had five pairs of villas by Cubitt, each with gardens extending to stables. The owner of Highbury House sold off for building a strip of parkland along the frontage of this development. The result is the row of 20 houses on a service road separated from the carriageway by a row of horse chestnut and railing. This service road stands on earth excavated from the foundations of the terrace and the pavement is supported by brick vaults with a varied collection of cast iron coal hole covers to the cellars below.
26 Highbury Barn Tavern. This originated in the barn of Highbury Manor where visitors could buy drinks. A wall plaque has gone but it recorded the notorious pleasure ground which resulted. in the early 18th it was a tea garden with cakes and ale and country recreations bit it became a venue for the local roughs as a tavern on the site, with an entrance in Kelross Road and a brewery on the premises.. From 1861 it included a music hall and theatre, and with fireworks and acrobats. Dancing continued far into the night along with prostitution and disturbance. Eventually locals got the licence revoked in 1871. It later continued as a local pub and now is an Islington type pub with a posh restaurant and considerable pretensions.
54 & 56 these are the remaining Cubitt villas with a date stone of 1883 on the facades.
Shopping parade. These shops were purpose built soon after the closure of Highbury Barn pleasure gardens in 1871. Many of the trades represented are the same ones as were present then.
Loxford House. This has been converted to flats along with a development behind. The house dates from the mid 19th and was built by the Dent family, glove makers. Since 1925 it was used by the National Children's Home as headquarters and staff training centre. They were founded near Waterloo in Lambeth in 1869 and grew to have over 50 residential homes, hostels and schools. Loxford House was refaced and extended by Alan Brace. They were latterly called Action for Children and moved to Watford in 2008. There were many ancillary buildings to the rear
St.Joan of Arc. In 1918 there was a Carmelite Chapel here. IN 1920, a temporary church was built in Kelross Road. It is thought to be the first church in the world dedicated to St Joan of Arc. Many Catholics moved to the area in the 1940’s and 50’s. Plans for a new church and school on the site of the Carmelite chapel were drawn up in 1959. The new church Opened in 1962. The architect was Stanley Kerr Bate. The statue of St Joan of Arc is by Arthur Fleishmann using Perspex to convey St Joan in armour
St.Joan of Arc Primary School. This is a voluntary aided catholic primary school managed by the Westminster diocese
Highbury Place
Highbury Place. This was developed by landowner John Dawes. The speculator was London builder John Spiller who designed it from 1774. The southern section of the road is in the square to the south
24/25 coach-houses which originally separated the terraces. This pair was given extra space.
25 London County Council plaque. From 1845-54 this was the home of Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain 1836-1914, Colonial Secretary and father of Sir Austen and Neville Chamberlain.
Providence Baptist chapel. In 1850 a group of eight met at "Providence Baptist Chapel" and their first building was completed in 1857 in Providence Place, off Upper Street. In 1885 the church began looking for a new home close to their mission in Avenell Road. They moved to Highbury Place and the foundation stones were laid in 1887, it was a Red brick building by C.J. Bentley, financed by money from the Providence chapel in Fore Street. Post war numbers fell and in 1987 the church was renamed as Highbury Baptist Church. The building, was gradually decaying; so, in 1997, a new building was planned and in 2001 the church vacated the old building, and demolition began. The new building opened in 2002.
Highbury Terrace
Highbury Terrace. Built 1789-94 and 1817 it was the first addition to Highbury fields after completion of Highbury Place .ad built to the north to preserve the open aspect.
1 From 1796 until 1806 this was the home of Francis Ronalds, pioneer of the electric telegraph. He is said to have experimented with a cable linking the rear coach-house.
12 home of Capt. Joseph Huddart FRS. He was a hydrographer and an elder brethren of Trinity House. He had a cable works in Limehouse with the earliest gas works in London attached. Here he had a small observatory with a telescope in his attic from which height he could view the Thames and Docks. He is said to have a ships cabin inside the house.
18 this was once The Elizabeth Fry Home for girls.
Highbury Terrace Mews
Back road with a varied mix of housing. This includes several modernist houses built by architects as their own homes.
Holloway Road
Holloway means hollow way, guarded by a hermit to make a causeway, took gravel from the top of Highgate Hill to make a pond
72 North London Buddhist Centre. This opened to the public in 2003. It has two shrine rooms, two study / course rooms and a large reception area with bookshop and café. It started by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order which was founded by Sangharakshita in 1967 and it is part of an international network. The house itself dates from 1812 and was originally 2 Aston Place built by sculptor John Atkinson.
80 Richmond Fellowship. Head office of this mental health charity, founded in the 1960s in Richmond with a concept of recovery and care.
88-90 Jilton Manufacturing. 1950s made glass and diamond cutting equipment and drills.
95-101 Pugh Brothers. ‘Cycle experts” 1930s
97-99 Wig and Gown pub. Closed 2013
100. Lord Nelson Pub. This dates from 1851 at what was then 18 Aston Place. Also called recently Horatia and before that The Ashburton. There is said to be a tiled picture of Nelson by the front door. Possibly a bit rough. In the 1970s it was a music pub with Dr.Feelgood!
135 Salvation Army Temperance Hall. Closed 1886
152 The Holloway Mosque
168 Holloway Swimming Baths. Present in the 1870-90s. They were also used for boxing matches as well as water polo and lifesaving demonstrations. It had two pools and 34 private bathrooms.
160 Western Laundry. This appears to have occupied this site for most of the 20th and clearly relates to the firm with a large site in Drayton Park
Ring Cross. This is said to have been a hamlet at the junction with Liverpool Road first mentioned in 1694. In 1717 when a turnpike was set up under the 1717 Act, a gate stood here. It is said to have been the site of executions,
The high level interceptory sewer crosses under the road at Drayton Park
166- 170 Thomas Handisyde confectionary manufacture and wholesalers. Handisyde had been sugar bakers in Wapping in the 18th making sweets with ‘secret messages’ inside them.
188 The Old Pied Bull. Pub, now demolished.
194-196 Century Cinema. This Opened as the Holloway Grand Pictures in 1913, designed by architect George D. Duckworth. It was independent until 1935 when it became the Regent Cinema under Ben Jay. In 1950 it was re-named Century Cinema and in 1955 it was purchased by the Essoldo Circuit. It closed in 1961 having been subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order and was demolished. An extension to the Polytechnic College of North London was built on the site.
London Metropolitan University. This dates from 2002 when London Guildhall University, based in the City and Whitechapel merged with the University of North London. The Holloway Road site was set up by the Northern Polytechnic Institute in 1896, merging in 1971 with the North Western Polytechnic to become the Polytechnic of North London. This is a very large campus with many buildings of varying ages and it is planned to bring more of the Guildhall University departments to Holloway Road.
203 Victoria Tavern. This is now a bar called Phibbers.
214 Coach and Horses. Pub now demolished
258-262 Harpers Novelty Toy Co. made jigsaws 1920s
262 Sunrise Speciality Co. made washing machines, 1920s
266 Rutherfords. In the 1940s they made ‘high class’ handbags.
263-273 Jelks furniture works. While making and selling furniture of all sorts Jelks specialised in billiard and snooker tables.
Hornsey Road
Hornsey Ragged School. Later William Forster School/ Shelbourne School. This began in 1825 as a community Mission who established the Holloway Free and Ragged School in 1846 in Hornsey Road. This was on the current Hornsey Road site with a girls department across the road to the north. They educated deprived local children. In 1872, it was taken over by the London School Board and they built a new school. It was called The William Forster School after the philanthropist. It was later merged with an elementary school then in Shelburne Road and it was merged with the William Forster School. In 1958, it became the Shelburne High School for Girls. In 1981 it was merged with Highbury fields School. The building was later used as a youth centre. It now appears to be flats.
An engineering works and a dry cleaning works are shown alongside the railway opposite the school in the 1950s.
Albany Place
This was latterly used as an entrance to the council depot
Mission Hall. The Albany Mission was formerly a day school dating from 1840. It was then a branch mission and Sunday School of the Holloway Chapel. In 1961 it closed and the site was acquired by the Council to extend their Cleansing Depot
Methodist Chapel. The work of the Central Mission was transferred here in 1953 but this building was compulsorily purchased for slum clearance.
Arvon Road
Herb Garden. In 1985 residents of Arvon Road opened a herb
garden planted with English herbs and other plants.
Ashburton Grove
The road has now disappeared under the Emirates Stadium. Before the Second World War it appears to have been lined with housing and to have led to various railway goods and coal depots. It was later enveloped by the Islington Council depot.
Ashburton Grove goods station. Opened in 1876 and closed 1960.
London North East Railway, coal depot
Council Depot. This was rebuilt in 1937. It included a refuse destructor installed in the early 1890s.
Ashburton Triangle. This is the tip of the triangle now taken up by the Emirates Stadium. This tip was set aside for a residential development built by Robert MacAlpine. There is also an enclosed landscaped communal garden and the Arsenal Museum.
Aubert Park
Named after Alexander Aubert a Swiss insurance broker and amateur astrologer who had an observatory at Deptford and commissioned another at Highbury House
Aubert Court Garden. This garden area surrounding Aubert Court is part of an Islington council estate built 1946-53 by E. C. P. Monson. The garden was the site of the Highbury College for Dissenters which stood here.
Highbury College of Dissenters. This moved here from Mile End. The buildings were on the grassed area on the north side of the road opposite Leigh Road. A cobbled carriage entrance crossed the pavement. It was designed by John Davies, surveyor for Tower Hamlets 1839-1865 and was built around three sides of a square with an imposing portico. It was sold to the Church of England in 1849 that added more buildings in the 1860s and was known as St.John’s Hall. It was eventually burnt down in the 1940s. Two anti-aircraft guns were sited here in the Second World War
17 Hartfield. Plaque to physiologist, surgeon and anthropologist.
Battledean Road
4 Plaque by Islington Council to Charles Bowerman. Early 20th activist in the printing trade unions
Benwell Road
Part of an old route north continuing Hornsey Road, called Devil's Lane
11-13 Benwell Studios. Office block
15-21 Benwell House. Jamie Oliver corporate headquarters. Restaurant Group
National College of Rubber Technology. Courses in rubber technology started at the Northern Polytechnic in 1924. In 1945 a National College of Rubber Technology was founded here. A new building was constructed in Benwell Road designed to provide and in 1953 the college transferred there. Now the Metropolitan University it has become the London Metropolitan Polymer Centre
40 Montague Arms. There by 1874 this pub is now converted to housing.
55 Arsenal Hub. Base for ‘Arsenal in the Community’ providing sport and education sessions to local people. It has an astroturf pitch, and also classrooms, meeting space and the Arsenal Red Zone adult learning centre.
Post Office Sorting office. This is shown on the corner with Hornsey Road before the Second World War.
The Forster Board School was opened in 1889 by the School Board for London on the site of the Holloway Ragged School (which fronted on Hornsey Road). In the 1950s it was re-named William Forster School and then closed in 1961. It was later used by the Shelburne School as an annexe and then as Shelburne Youth Centre. The building is still there but now fronts on to Hornsey Road, while there are buildings in front of the Benwell Road entrance, with the old school entrance gate retained as a feature.
Chillingworth Road
This was once called Victoria Road.
St. Mark’s Studios. This was originally the church of St.James the Apostle built in 1837 by Inwood & Clifton's. The tower was added in 1850. It was altered to become a parish hall after bombing in 1944. This was built inside the old church; the derelict roof remaining. The parish united with Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1954.and it thus became St, Mary Magdalene Community Hall. It was converted in 1980-2 by Pollard Thomas Edwards Associates as flats and studios – as School of Audio Engineering although many organisations are based there.
Ring Cross Primary School. School on site here c1955-c1977
4a Stoddarts. Made toy soldiers, etc. 1920s
Church Path
The path leads from the top of Highbury Place to Christ Church. a footpath prviouslsy ran across the 'Mother Field' from Highbury Corner to the old Manor House site and was a public footpath from the early 19th . It has railings on both sides and is lined with trees.
Corsica Street
A mews area for the posh houses in Highbury Place
Drayton Park `
This was once called Highbury Hill Park,
1 Collis Bird Withey. Bookbinders providing a service for small scale publishing – theses, etc.
2 Mission hall in the 19th and 19th
23 The Old Roman Catholic Church, founded in England in 1908, moved here from Aberdeen Road in in 1974 and opened a chapel here.
Highbury Chapel, Wesleyan Methodist was built in the Gothic style. It became part of the Wesleyan London Central Mission from the 1880s. In 1930 it was closed when the Central Hall was built.
Highbury Wesleyan School for Boys and Girls. In 1864 day schools were added to the Highbury chapel. They were demolished when the central hall was built on their site. On the corner with Horsell Road. The school became Drayton Park
Central Methodist Hall Islington. This was built in 1929 on the site of the Methodist schools to replace two older local Wesleyan Methodist churches. The first minister was Rev Donald Soper who developed the church and organised community facilities. It had a large two-tier auditorium seating 1,300. In 1941 the church united with Archway Central Hall to form the London Mission North Circuit. It closed in 1953 because of maintenance costs and the building was let for industrial use.
30 German Methodist Mission. The Mission, was based here 1929-1971
Western Laundry. This includes a big bock of buildings between the school and an original house at 32. A laundry had existed here, behind the houses, from at least 1900. It was taken over by National Sunlight and then became Cypressa, a Greek food importer. The 1930s building included a chimney at the back north which has since been removed. The building has been divided into office and industrial units since the 1960s and was reported to have been demolished in 2006. A restaurant with the original laundry name is now occupying part of the building.
Drayton Park Primary School. This began in 1860 as the Highbury Wesleyan School at a site on the corner of Horsell Read. A new building was provided in 1866 for boys, girls and infants. It was a voluntary school in 1906 but taken over by the London County Council and renamed Drayton Park Council School by 1908. An extension was added in 1966. A nursery opened 1980 in part of infant accommodation.
Drayton Park Station. This was opened in 1904 and lies between Finsbury Park and Highbury and Islington on the Northern City Line. It was opened by the Great Northern & City Railway to provide a route for their trains to Moorgate which proceeded in a deep tube tunnel constructed to main line dimensions. It was however never fully connected at Finsbury Park. In 1913 the company was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway and in 1933 by the London Passenger Transport Board and became part of the Northern Line... Construction of the Victoria Line meant that the tunnels north of Drayton Park were used for that line and Drayton Park became a terminus for the line from Moorgate. In 1975 the line was transferred to British Rail and ramps built in the 1930s for the Northern Heights plan were used for tracks to connect the line Finsbury Park had main line trains ran on it from 1976 between Finsbury Park and Moorgate.
Railway. The Northern Heights plan was conceived in the 1930s for a railway to Elstree via Highgate. It included providing the unbuilt connection from Drayton Park to Finsbury Park. By 1939 Earthworks for two extra lines to Finsbury Park Station and for new bridges were completed but the Second World War put an end to this and the new line was never completed.
Depot. Remnants of this can be seen to the left of the platform the track having been sold to a heritage railway. It was opened in 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway for electric traction workshops. Closed in 1985. Maps from the later 19th show an ‘electric light works’ and a ’gas works’ on site.
52d Islington Learning Disabilities Partnership. This is in what was built as a Neighbourhood Centre, one of four local centres to house decentralized day-to-day services. Planned in 1982 it was built by Chris Purslow, Borough Architect.
66 Drayton Arms. Old fashioned pub
75 Emirates Stadium. This is built on the site of Islington Borough rubbish disposal depot and is a football ground with a capacity of nearly 60,000.In 1997. Arsenal football club bought the site and work began on the ground in 2004. Emirates sponsored it. The ground is also used for non-football events. It includes a plaque “The Spirit of Highbury", to past football players and eight murals which encircles the stadium and which depicts other players. The scheme also involves numerous commercial and other buildings around the periphery of this large site, running along the edge of what was the railway goods and coal depot
100 -112 Flats in what was the Express Dairy bakery which dated from the late 19th with extensive alterations in 1912 and later.
Fieldway Crescent
Islington Central Library. Built 1905-7 by Henry T. Hare and is a Carnegie endowment. It has a stone front with statues of Spenser and Bacon. The frieze says 'Islington Central Library' with the date '19 AD 06' over the porch and three ladies' heads below the frieze by Schenk. There is a red brick wing behind plus a 1970s addition with a new main entrance. It was the first purpose built open-access library. This is the library which exhibited the books which Joe Orton defaced, and for which he was sent to prison.
George’s Road
2 The first Wesleyan chapel in Lower Holloway was built in the garden here in 1837. In 1857 this closed and leased to the Quakers.
St James Works. Favourite Toys. This was a location for Dr.Who. Now in other use.
Hamilton Park
Hamilton Lane and Royal Mail Sorting Office. This has recently been closed and sold. The sorting office dated from the 1960s but replaced an older building.
Highbury Crescent
This row of large villas formed the boundary of the Fields. It was designed by James Wagstaffe, and opened in 1846. The southern section of the road is in the square to the south.
Highbury Fields
This square covers only the northern half of The Fields. This is now the largest piece of open ground to survive in Islington, a triangular-shaped public park on sloping land. Rustic the fields lay alongside the main road from the North and were thus a regular stopping place for cattle to graze on the way to Smithfield. It was also used by local dairy farmers. In the 19th it was used as allotments. In the 1860s 25 acres of open land were purchased from John Dawes the freeholder by Islington Vestry and opened to the public. It became a public park in 1885 and 1891. In 1885 it was purchased for £60,000, half paid by Islington vestry and the other half by Metropolitan Board of Works. It was subsequently managed by London .County .Council. Two and a half mew acres were acquired in 1891 on the demolition of Highbury Grove mansion.
Canonbury Curve. This railway tunnel runs under the fields, built in 1873 by the Great Northern Railway tunnel but now includes the Victoria Line tunnel. In curve was originally built to connecting the Great Northern Railway suburban system with Broad Street.
Highbury Grove
This is a medieval road to Highbury Manor House.
Highbury Grove School – this is described in the square to the east
Ladbroke House. This block was formerly used by A.C. Cossor Ltd, Here they are said to have made the first cathode ray tubes in 1902 and did work for Marconi. In 1918 they moved to Aberdeen Works (described in the post to the east). It was later occupied by the North London Polytechnic, as the North London Science centre and subsequently London Metropolitan University. It has now been purchased by the government for a film studies based ‘Free’ school.
56a originally a brick garage dating from 1900 with corrugated iron roof this was a purpose built balloon factory - G.G.Spencer and sons, pioneering aeronauts. The works was visited by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Herbert Spencer is said to have made 1250 balloon ascents and 250 parachute descents. He claimed the first parachute descent from a balloon in 1899 and made a drop of 15 000 feet in 1909.
155 Christ Church. Christ Church cost £6000 and was dedicated in 1848. Local landowner Henry Dawes donated the site and the architect was Thomas Allom of Balham. He made the most of his corner island site with an asymmetrically placed spire to give a profile from every viewpoint. It was restored in 1980.
Vicarage. This fronts onto the road at the southeast side of the church. Also in Kentish rag
Highbury Hill
'Dreary neighbourhood’ is a quotation from the 1940s. Many of the sites on the Highbury Hill estate were developed as purpose-built blocks of flats
Clock Tower. This is in cast iron and erected for Queen Victoria's Jubilee Diamond Jubilee. An inscription cast into the door of the plinth says: 'Presented to the Islington Vestry by Alfred Hutchinson in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria 1897
Highbury Fields School. The school is the result of the joining of Highbury Hill High School and Shelburne High School in 1981. Before this it was Highbury Hill High School which was founded in 1844 by the Home and Colonial Society as one of their Model School in the Grays Inn Road. From 1863, it was a girls school and was renamed “The Mayo School” after a founding member, Elizabeth Mayo. In 1894 the School moved from to Highbury Hill House and became Highbury Hill High School for Girls. Management was later handed over to London County Council who built a brand new school here in 1928 in classical brick with a hipped roof. A later extension was by Stirling and Gowan in a brick and glass style of the 1960s. In 1976 it became London’s first ever mini-comprehensive along with local boy’s school, Highbury Grove. There have been further building extensions since
Highbury Hill House. This was built in 1719 by Daniel Asher Alexander for Dr. William Saunders, FRS an expert on lier disease. It wad demolished for the school
Tawney Court. This is the site of Highbury Hill Baptist Church. The church originated in 1862 but was disused by 1866. Another group formed in 1871 and a Chapel was built 1870-1 and registered by Particular Baptists. Vestries and classrooms were added by 1901. It was damaged by 1952 and demolished in 1959.
Highbury Park
This runs between Highbury Grove and Blackstock Road. Some of the area it runs through now seems to be called Highbury Barn. The frontage to Highbury Park, then called Cream Hall Road, had five pairs of villas by Cubitt, each with gardens extending to stables. The owner of Highbury House sold off for building a strip of parkland along the frontage of this development. The result is the row of 20 houses on a service road separated from the carriageway by a row of horse chestnut and railing. This service road stands on earth excavated from the foundations of the terrace and the pavement is supported by brick vaults with a varied collection of cast iron coal hole covers to the cellars below.
26 Highbury Barn Tavern. This originated in the barn of Highbury Manor where visitors could buy drinks. A wall plaque has gone but it recorded the notorious pleasure ground which resulted. in the early 18th it was a tea garden with cakes and ale and country recreations bit it became a venue for the local roughs as a tavern on the site, with an entrance in Kelross Road and a brewery on the premises.. From 1861 it included a music hall and theatre, and with fireworks and acrobats. Dancing continued far into the night along with prostitution and disturbance. Eventually locals got the licence revoked in 1871. It later continued as a local pub and now is an Islington type pub with a posh restaurant and considerable pretensions.
54 & 56 these are the remaining Cubitt villas with a date stone of 1883 on the facades.
Shopping parade. These shops were purpose built soon after the closure of Highbury Barn pleasure gardens in 1871. Many of the trades represented are the same ones as were present then.
Loxford House. This has been converted to flats along with a development behind. The house dates from the mid 19th and was built by the Dent family, glove makers. Since 1925 it was used by the National Children's Home as headquarters and staff training centre. They were founded near Waterloo in Lambeth in 1869 and grew to have over 50 residential homes, hostels and schools. Loxford House was refaced and extended by Alan Brace. They were latterly called Action for Children and moved to Watford in 2008. There were many ancillary buildings to the rear
St.Joan of Arc. In 1918 there was a Carmelite Chapel here. IN 1920, a temporary church was built in Kelross Road. It is thought to be the first church in the world dedicated to St Joan of Arc. Many Catholics moved to the area in the 1940’s and 50’s. Plans for a new church and school on the site of the Carmelite chapel were drawn up in 1959. The new church Opened in 1962. The architect was Stanley Kerr Bate. The statue of St Joan of Arc is by Arthur Fleishmann using Perspex to convey St Joan in armour
St.Joan of Arc Primary School. This is a voluntary aided catholic primary school managed by the Westminster diocese
Highbury Place
Highbury Place. This was developed by landowner John Dawes. The speculator was London builder John Spiller who designed it from 1774. The southern section of the road is in the square to the south
24/25 coach-houses which originally separated the terraces. This pair was given extra space.
25 London County Council plaque. From 1845-54 this was the home of Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain 1836-1914, Colonial Secretary and father of Sir Austen and Neville Chamberlain.
Providence Baptist chapel. In 1850 a group of eight met at "Providence Baptist Chapel" and their first building was completed in 1857 in Providence Place, off Upper Street. In 1885 the church began looking for a new home close to their mission in Avenell Road. They moved to Highbury Place and the foundation stones were laid in 1887, it was a Red brick building by C.J. Bentley, financed by money from the Providence chapel in Fore Street. Post war numbers fell and in 1987 the church was renamed as Highbury Baptist Church. The building, was gradually decaying; so, in 1997, a new building was planned and in 2001 the church vacated the old building, and demolition began. The new building opened in 2002.
Highbury Terrace
Highbury Terrace. Built 1789-94 and 1817 it was the first addition to Highbury fields after completion of Highbury Place .ad built to the north to preserve the open aspect.
1 From 1796 until 1806 this was the home of Francis Ronalds, pioneer of the electric telegraph. He is said to have experimented with a cable linking the rear coach-house.
12 home of Capt. Joseph Huddart FRS. He was a hydrographer and an elder brethren of Trinity House. He had a cable works in Limehouse with the earliest gas works in London attached. Here he had a small observatory with a telescope in his attic from which height he could view the Thames and Docks. He is said to have a ships cabin inside the house.
18 this was once The Elizabeth Fry Home for girls.
Highbury Terrace Mews
Back road with a varied mix of housing. This includes several modernist houses built by architects as their own homes.
Holloway Road
Holloway means hollow way, guarded by a hermit to make a causeway, took gravel from the top of Highgate Hill to make a pond
72 North London Buddhist Centre. This opened to the public in 2003. It has two shrine rooms, two study / course rooms and a large reception area with bookshop and café. It started by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order which was founded by Sangharakshita in 1967 and it is part of an international network. The house itself dates from 1812 and was originally 2 Aston Place built by sculptor John Atkinson.
80 Richmond Fellowship. Head office of this mental health charity, founded in the 1960s in Richmond with a concept of recovery and care.
88-90 Jilton Manufacturing. 1950s made glass and diamond cutting equipment and drills.
95-101 Pugh Brothers. ‘Cycle experts” 1930s
97-99 Wig and Gown pub. Closed 2013
100. Lord Nelson Pub. This dates from 1851 at what was then 18 Aston Place. Also called recently Horatia and before that The Ashburton. There is said to be a tiled picture of Nelson by the front door. Possibly a bit rough. In the 1970s it was a music pub with Dr.Feelgood!
135 Salvation Army Temperance Hall. Closed 1886
152 The Holloway Mosque
168 Holloway Swimming Baths. Present in the 1870-90s. They were also used for boxing matches as well as water polo and lifesaving demonstrations. It had two pools and 34 private bathrooms.
160 Western Laundry. This appears to have occupied this site for most of the 20th and clearly relates to the firm with a large site in Drayton Park
Ring Cross. This is said to have been a hamlet at the junction with Liverpool Road first mentioned in 1694. In 1717 when a turnpike was set up under the 1717 Act, a gate stood here. It is said to have been the site of executions,
The high level interceptory sewer crosses under the road at Drayton Park
166- 170 Thomas Handisyde confectionary manufacture and wholesalers. Handisyde had been sugar bakers in Wapping in the 18th making sweets with ‘secret messages’ inside them.
188 The Old Pied Bull. Pub, now demolished.
194-196 Century Cinema. This Opened as the Holloway Grand Pictures in 1913, designed by architect George D. Duckworth. It was independent until 1935 when it became the Regent Cinema under Ben Jay. In 1950 it was re-named Century Cinema and in 1955 it was purchased by the Essoldo Circuit. It closed in 1961 having been subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order and was demolished. An extension to the Polytechnic College of North London was built on the site.
London Metropolitan University. This dates from 2002 when London Guildhall University, based in the City and Whitechapel merged with the University of North London. The Holloway Road site was set up by the Northern Polytechnic Institute in 1896, merging in 1971 with the North Western Polytechnic to become the Polytechnic of North London. This is a very large campus with many buildings of varying ages and it is planned to bring more of the Guildhall University departments to Holloway Road.
203 Victoria Tavern. This is now a bar called Phibbers.
214 Coach and Horses. Pub now demolished
258-262 Harpers Novelty Toy Co. made jigsaws 1920s
262 Sunrise Speciality Co. made washing machines, 1920s
266 Rutherfords. In the 1940s they made ‘high class’ handbags.
263-273 Jelks furniture works. While making and selling furniture of all sorts Jelks specialised in billiard and snooker tables.
Hornsey Road
Hornsey Ragged School. Later William Forster School/ Shelbourne School. This began in 1825 as a community Mission who established the Holloway Free and Ragged School in 1846 in Hornsey Road. This was on the current Hornsey Road site with a girls department across the road to the north. They educated deprived local children. In 1872, it was taken over by the London School Board and they built a new school. It was called The William Forster School after the philanthropist. It was later merged with an elementary school then in Shelburne Road and it was merged with the William Forster School. In 1958, it became the Shelburne High School for Girls. In 1981 it was merged with Highbury fields School. The building was later used as a youth centre. It now appears to be flats.
An engineering works and a dry cleaning works are shown alongside the railway opposite the school in the 1950s.
Montem School. Board School 1897, remodelled 1968. Boldly Baroque, remodelled inside GLC 1968-71; low extension across the road with nice U-shaped railings.
Horsell Road
Davy Electrical Construction. Firm based in the road around 1900
Leigh Road
The road follows the line of the rectangular moat that enclosed the medieval manor house. Up until the 1950s the road also covered the road now called Roseleigh Avenjue
Highbury House stood here on high ground on the site of Eton House flats. In 1271 Alicia de Barrow, gave it to the Priory of St John of Jerusalem and the Prior built Highbury manor as stone country lodging with a grange and barn. In 1381, Jack Straw is said to have led a group of 20,000 who destroyed the manor house. Jack Straw used the site as a headquarters and it then became known Jack Straw’s Castle. It became derelict. It was surrounded by a moat with its only entrance across a bridge from what we now call Highbury Park. Part of the moat was filled in y John Dawes who built the house here it in in 1781 in 74 acres of park. Alexander Aubert, the second owner, added an astronomical observatory and an ornamental tower to house the redundant clock from the old City church of St Peter-le-Poor, Broad Street. The mansion was sold in 1805 on Aubert's death to John Bentley. In 1888 it was used by the Zenana Missionary Society which worked to evangelise Indian women. From the 19th the site was gradually sold for development and the house with the exception of a plain wing, itself demolished in 1997, was demolished in 1939 and replaced by flats
Christ Church Hall. The site of this is now flats
Liverpool Road
489 Adam and Eve Pub. The pub closed in 2003 but has had various new names as a bar and/or restaurant.
Lowther Road
1 NHS Centre. This was built as a local authority Neighbourhood Centre in 1982 designed by Chris Purslow, Borough Architect.
Palmer Place
Central Methodist Church. Following the closure of the hall in Drayton Park other temporary premises were found. A new church was built in Palmers Place on the other side of Holloway Road and opened in 1962 as Islington Central Methodist Church.
15 This is currently printers but has in the past been an engineering works, and also been a base for charities.
Holloway and North Islington Dispensary. Islington Dispensary was founded in 1821 and based in Upper Street, and by the 1880s there were branches in Upper and Lower Holloway. This one was for the poor who were not on parish relief.
Queensland Road
Called Queens Road until 1872. The road has now been completely changed by the Emirates Stadium – everything demolished and new housing put up.
1 Queen's Arms. Demolished
7 Volunteer. This pub was latterly called The Favourite. It was demolished in 2003 for the Emirates Stadium.
Queensland Multi Media Arts Centre. Community arts centre oriented towards children now closed and demolished.
44-46 Alliance Spring Co Ltd, they make springs. The company led a court action against compulsory purchase for the Emirates stadium. The building has now been demolished
58-80 Remploy factory. Opened in 1963 to replace the company’s original Holloway premises in Ashbrook Road. Remploy Ltd was set up by the Government in 1945 to help disabled people into employment. Closed and demolished.
Holloway Royal Mail Delivery Office. Demolished.
82-90 Lithosphere. Printers. Building now demolished.
99 Middleton Maintenance Group. The building has been demolished. The Compamia is now Midlands based as Trios Services
P & J Arnold, Aldersgate Works. In 1893 they exhibited in Chicago “Writing and copying inks; mucilage gums, sealing waxes”. They also made carbon paper. The predecessors to P. & J. Arnold were in business as manufacturing and pharmaceutical chemists in the Barbican, London, in 1724. In 1815 they moved to Aldersgate Street, on the site of the Half Moon Inn, roofing in the courtyard as ‘the Ink House’ . They went on to make Typewriter Ribbons, Wax Stencils for Roneos and Cyclostyles. (Address otherwise given as Benwell Road)
Globe Works. Barns & Son 1907. Made perforated metals.
North London Oil Refinery. 1870s W. Young – soda ash, naphthalene, washing blue
St. Barnabas Church Mission hall. Demolished.
Holloway Collar Company. This firm was founded using French technology to make the first celluloid collars, but based on the British invention, Xylonite. (Address otherwise given as Benwell Road)
Ronalds Road
70 Highbury Crescent Rooms. Offices built in 1929 probably for the Oddfellows about whom there is a plaque inside.
11 Clarendon Buildings, Offices
1-9 former Salvation Army Citadel. Opened 1861 closed 1968
71 Highbury Roundhouse, bottleworks building. This was the Foothill Road Glassworks –aka Bellchambers Glass Bottle Co and also Belmont Glass Bottle Works. The building has severe structural problems and the community group which has used it since 1974 has moved. They run facilities for all ages, although initially a youth scheme.
Whistler Street
Laundry. Now demolished and replaced
Sources
AIM National archive. Web site
Angry of Islington. Web site
Arsenal Hub. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Cosh. Squares of Islington
Day. London Underground
Drayton Park Primary School. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Glass Making in London. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Highbury Fields School. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Hounsell. London’s Rubbish
London Borough of Islington. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway record
McCarthy. London North of the Thames
Manchester History. Web site
Nature Conservation in Islington
North London Buddhist Centre. Web site
Northern wastes,
Pevsner& Cherry. London North
Pub History. Web site.
Richmond Fellowship. Web site
Smythe. Citywildspace,
Sugden. History of Highbury
Summerson, Georgian London
Willats. Streets of Islington
Horsell Road
Davy Electrical Construction. Firm based in the road around 1900
Leigh Road
The road follows the line of the rectangular moat that enclosed the medieval manor house. Up until the 1950s the road also covered the road now called Roseleigh Avenjue
Highbury House stood here on high ground on the site of Eton House flats. In 1271 Alicia de Barrow, gave it to the Priory of St John of Jerusalem and the Prior built Highbury manor as stone country lodging with a grange and barn. In 1381, Jack Straw is said to have led a group of 20,000 who destroyed the manor house. Jack Straw used the site as a headquarters and it then became known Jack Straw’s Castle. It became derelict. It was surrounded by a moat with its only entrance across a bridge from what we now call Highbury Park. Part of the moat was filled in y John Dawes who built the house here it in in 1781 in 74 acres of park. Alexander Aubert, the second owner, added an astronomical observatory and an ornamental tower to house the redundant clock from the old City church of St Peter-le-Poor, Broad Street. The mansion was sold in 1805 on Aubert's death to John Bentley. In 1888 it was used by the Zenana Missionary Society which worked to evangelise Indian women. From the 19th the site was gradually sold for development and the house with the exception of a plain wing, itself demolished in 1997, was demolished in 1939 and replaced by flats
Christ Church Hall. The site of this is now flats
Liverpool Road
489 Adam and Eve Pub. The pub closed in 2003 but has had various new names as a bar and/or restaurant.
Lowther Road
1 NHS Centre. This was built as a local authority Neighbourhood Centre in 1982 designed by Chris Purslow, Borough Architect.
Palmer Place
Central Methodist Church. Following the closure of the hall in Drayton Park other temporary premises were found. A new church was built in Palmers Place on the other side of Holloway Road and opened in 1962 as Islington Central Methodist Church.
15 This is currently printers but has in the past been an engineering works, and also been a base for charities.
Holloway and North Islington Dispensary. Islington Dispensary was founded in 1821 and based in Upper Street, and by the 1880s there were branches in Upper and Lower Holloway. This one was for the poor who were not on parish relief.
Queensland Road
Called Queens Road until 1872. The road has now been completely changed by the Emirates Stadium – everything demolished and new housing put up.
1 Queen's Arms. Demolished
7 Volunteer. This pub was latterly called The Favourite. It was demolished in 2003 for the Emirates Stadium.
Queensland Multi Media Arts Centre. Community arts centre oriented towards children now closed and demolished.
44-46 Alliance Spring Co Ltd, they make springs. The company led a court action against compulsory purchase for the Emirates stadium. The building has now been demolished
58-80 Remploy factory. Opened in 1963 to replace the company’s original Holloway premises in Ashbrook Road. Remploy Ltd was set up by the Government in 1945 to help disabled people into employment. Closed and demolished.
Holloway Royal Mail Delivery Office. Demolished.
82-90 Lithosphere. Printers. Building now demolished.
99 Middleton Maintenance Group. The building has been demolished. The Compamia is now Midlands based as Trios Services
P & J Arnold, Aldersgate Works. In 1893 they exhibited in Chicago “Writing and copying inks; mucilage gums, sealing waxes”. They also made carbon paper. The predecessors to P. & J. Arnold were in business as manufacturing and pharmaceutical chemists in the Barbican, London, in 1724. In 1815 they moved to Aldersgate Street, on the site of the Half Moon Inn, roofing in the courtyard as ‘the Ink House’ . They went on to make Typewriter Ribbons, Wax Stencils for Roneos and Cyclostyles. (Address otherwise given as Benwell Road)
Globe Works. Barns & Son 1907. Made perforated metals.
North London Oil Refinery. 1870s W. Young – soda ash, naphthalene, washing blue
St. Barnabas Church Mission hall. Demolished.
Holloway Collar Company. This firm was founded using French technology to make the first celluloid collars, but based on the British invention, Xylonite. (Address otherwise given as Benwell Road)
Ronalds Road
70 Highbury Crescent Rooms. Offices built in 1929 probably for the Oddfellows about whom there is a plaque inside.
11 Clarendon Buildings, Offices
1-9 former Salvation Army Citadel. Opened 1861 closed 1968
71 Highbury Roundhouse, bottleworks building. This was the Foothill Road Glassworks –aka Bellchambers Glass Bottle Co and also Belmont Glass Bottle Works. The building has severe structural problems and the community group which has used it since 1974 has moved. They run facilities for all ages, although initially a youth scheme.
Whistler Street
Laundry. Now demolished and replaced
Sources
AIM National archive. Web site
Angry of Islington. Web site
Arsenal Hub. Web site
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Cosh. Squares of Islington
Day. London Underground
Drayton Park Primary School. Web site
Field. London Place Names
Glass Making in London. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Highbury Fields School. Web site
Historic England. Web site
Hounsell. London’s Rubbish
London Borough of Islington. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Railway record
McCarthy. London North of the Thames
Manchester History. Web site
Nature Conservation in Islington
North London Buddhist Centre. Web site
Northern wastes,
Pevsner& Cherry. London North
Pub History. Web site.
Richmond Fellowship. Web site
Smythe. Citywildspace,
Sugden. History of Highbury
Summerson, Georgian London
Willats. Streets of Islington
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